Jean-Pierre Melville Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its Ishmaels and its Claggarts a challenge to the European...
It so happens that the gangster story is a very suitable vehicle for the particular form of modern tragedy called film noir, which was born from American detective novels. It's a flexible genre. You can put whatever you want into it, good or bad. And it's a fairly easy vehicle to use to tell stories that matter to you about individual freedom, friendship, or rather human relationships, because they're not always friendly. Or betrayal, one of the driving forces in American crime novels.
2
I think your first film should be made with your own blood.
3
I'd usually see five films a day. Fewer than five and I'd get withdrawal symptoms. I've always had a screening room at home so I could watch a couple of American films after dinner.
4
Filming is absolutely horrible. I call it 'tedious formality'. I hate shooting. My only relief in the whole tiresome business are the wonderful moments when I'm directing actors.
5
I'm incapable of doing anything but rough drafts. Each time I see one of my films again, then and only then can I see what I should have done. But I only see things this clearly once the finished print is being shown on the screen everywhere and it's too late to do anything about it.
#
Fact
1
Considered as the godfather of French New Wave.
2
Favorite director of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Mann, Johnnie To, John Woo, Takeshi Kitano, Hossein Amini and Aki Kaurismäki.
3
"As one of his films after another is rediscovered, Melville is moving into the ranks of the greatest directors." Roger Ebert says.
Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1963
7
According to Melville, Jean-Luc Godard asked him for consultation during the post-production stage because the first edit was too long for distribution. Melville suggested Godard remove all scenes that slowed down the action (his own turn as novelist Parvulesco included). However,instead of excluding entire scenes, Godard cut little bits from here and there. This led to the "jump cut" technique this movie introduced. Melville declared the result to be excellent.
8
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 670-675. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
$700,000
